Dennis Wilson

Dennis Carl Wilson (December 4 1944 â€" December 28 1983) was an American rock and roll musician best known as a founding member of The Beach Boys.

Personality

Wilson has been described by many to be hyperactive and rebellious, someone who always looked for something to fill his life with happiness. Dennis himself quoted in the sleeve notes in the album All Summer Long: "They say I live a fast life. Maybe I just like a fast life. I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. It won't last forever, either. But the memories will." In an interview with Keith Altham after being asked "â€¦ is there anything that frightens you?" Dennis responded "Fear is nothing but awareness. I was only frightened as a child because I did not understand fear â€" the dark, being lost, what was under the bed! It came from within."

He has also been described as a generous and loving man, who could satisfy himself by giving love but could never be satisfied in receiving love. He once said "I give everything I have away. What I am wearing and what's in that suitcase is it. I don't even have a car. I have a 1934 Dodge pick-up truck which someone gave me. I could have anything I want. I just have to go out and get it. If it's worth having, it's worth giving. The smile you send out will return to you!"

Stephen Kalinich in an interview with Adam Webb stated that "He had soul in his music and he was a master. And yet a primitive master in the sense that he may not have heard all of Beethoven or Bach but he had a feeling of combining the pain and the joy together." He remained honest throughout his songs, which he sung in a soulful croon. Dennis never felt loved and it was something that he always sought. This can clearly be seen in his song "Time" from his 1977 solo album Pacific Ocean Blue where the lyrics state "Know a lot of women, but they don't fill my heart; with love completely..." Dennis once stated "The greatest success in life is to feel I'm something for someone; the feeling of falling in love, the newness of love." A lot of Dennis' songs are expressed not only with great passion but also with great sorrow, and it is only in his music as Dennis describes that people can gain a true understanding of the person he was. "Everything that I am or will ever be is in the music. If you want to know me, just listen."

Beach Boys

Early Career

Born in Inglewood, California, Wilson was the second (middle) of the Wilson brothers. Dennis was only included in the band after the Wilson's mother, Audree Wilson, insisted to Brian that he not exclude Dennis from the band. Urged by older cousin Mike Love (born 15th March 1941), Dennis approached older brother Brian (born 20th June 1942), the original conspicuous musical talent in the family, to form a group and compose a song about surfing. The Beach Boys formed in August 1961 under the guidance of father Murry Wilson, meeting immediate success. Though the Beach Boys were named for and developed an image based on the California surfing culture, Dennis was the only real surfer in the band. In 1976 he described his love for the beach "I don't know why everybody doesn't live at the beach, on the ocean. It makes no sense to me, hanging around the dirty city. That's why I always loved and was proud to be a Beach Boy; I always loved the image. On the beach you can live in bliss."

During the first few years of The Beach Boys, Dennis was given the role of the drummer. His freedom to express himself was limited to playing the drums, and his voice was not as clear and was not regarded as â€˜angelic' as his two brothers, Brian and Carl. Because of this, Dennis was not realised at first for the talent he had and went on to show in future recordings. Dennis had little musical experience at the outset but quickly learned to play the drums. However, he gained little respect musically due to Brian's reliance as producer on session drummers, particularly Hal Blaine, although contrary to popular belief, Wilson did drum on many of the group's '60s recordings. Likewise, although he rarely sang onstage, his rough-hewn vocals were a key ingredient to the group's vocal blend in the studio. Despite his lower artistic profile, Wilson became far and away the most popular member of the group, becoming its box-office sex symbol. wilson' emerging musical talent took a back seat. He developed a personal musical style and taste divergent from the Beach Boys' known style: soulful, even bluesy, compared with the group's famous high harmonies.

Though given few important lead vocals on the early Beach Boys recordings ("Little Girl (You're My Miss America)" "This Car of Mine") he impressed on "Do You Wanna Dance?" in February 1965, then later that year on Beach Boys Party gave an authoritative rendition of John Lennon's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". He accompanied himself on guitar, and like the other Beach Boys became a multi-instrumentalist. His piano playing, in particular, developed into a distinctive style and was showcased on the Pacific Ocean Blue album.

Even though Wilson had managed to taste some success from his recordings off albums such as Friends, 20/20 and Sunflower, his music was still very much under rated and under promoted. With the release of Pacific Ocean Blue, Dennis proved that he was not just a drummer, but that he could write lyrics and music, produce as well as performing the album tracks. Despite this, Dennis knew that Brian was still the main man in The Beach Boys: "Brian Wilson is The Beach Boys. He is the band. We're his messengers. He is all of it. Period. We're nothing. He's everything."

Growing Influence

From 1968,wilson became The Beach Boys second most important composer. His major composing debut was "Little Bird," the flip side of "Friends", though he had helped Brian write a few songs dating back to 1963.

Wilson had further composing triumphs on later Beach Boys albums such as 20/20 (1969), Sunflower (1970), Carl and the Passions - "So Tough" (1972), Holland (1973) as well as others. Sunflower included the track "Forever". Not only popular with fans, it also earned him some much sought praise from brother Brian and father Murry. The album included three other songs written by Dennis but interestingly they were not meant to be on the album. As Stephen Desper states in Adam Webb's book 'Dumb Angel', "Although Dennis prior to [the release of Sunflower] had worked independently and recorded a whole bunch of songs, he selected a number that he wanted to submit to the Beach Boys to see if they would include them on Sunflower. At the time Sunflower was due and first submitted to Warner Brothers...it was rejected and Warner Brothers felt that the Beach Boys' effort was not up to par so they sent them back to the studio for a few months to get new songs recorded before they'd even consider the album. Dennis had a lot of these [his] songs in the can already almost finished. So they started considering more and more of these songs because they were almost ready and they could get this album out and get some income."

From mid 1971 to late 1974, Wilson was prevented from drumming by a hand injury and at live concerts assumed frontman duties with Mike Love (exacerbating, according to bandmate Al Jardine, the already considerable tension between them). The 1973 Beach Boys In Concert LP features Dennis alone on the front cover -- but none of his songs, which were highlights of the band's early '70s shows, were included.

During the three year recording hiatus following Holland, Dennis' voice deteriorated markedly (some claim from an injury sustained in a 1974 fight, others from alcohol use). By then his onstage antics (including streaking) occasionally disrupted the Beach Boys' live shows, but the era is generally considered to be his prime.

In 1974, concurrent with the success of the '60s hits compilation Endless Summer Dennis reassumed his role behind the drums, and the group became more and more of an oldies act. The artistic progress shown by Dennis and younger brother Carl was discarded in favor of a nostalgic image of 'America's Band'.

Charles Manson

The story goes that in 1968 Dennis Wilson was driving along through Malibu when he noticed two hitchhikers. He picked them up and dropped them off at their destination. Later on, Dennis noticed the same two girls hitchhiking. This time he pulled over and took them to his home. Dennis then went away to a recording session and when he returned at three o'clock in the morning he was met by a stranger, Charles Manson. When he walked into his home, there were about a dozen people occupying his home, most of them female.

It was the year 1969 that the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders occurred. Charles Manson had briefly become Dennis Wilson's protÃ©gÃ© before the murders, and the trauma of this episode affected Dennis for his remaining 14 years. He rarely discussed his involvement with the Manson 'Family' and he usually became upset whenever the subject was talked about. In one interview however he brought it up. "I guess it's time to talk about it. You see, when I knew Manson it was no big thing. We were friends; we lived together. That was long before the murders. And we'd talk every night, just like you and me. We'd really talk about important things." The interviewer went on asking the question "Do you know why Manson organized those murders?", Dennis responded "I know why Charles Manson did what he did. Someday, I'll tell the world. I'll write a book and explain why he did it. Over the years, people have always wanted to know what happened, what my relationship with Charlie was. We were just friends." Dennis did not testify at Charles Manson's trial as he went on to explain "I didn't testify at the trial. I couldn't. I was so scared. You know, the writers really raked me over the coals for not testifying."

Movie Role

He starred alongside James Taylor and Warren Oates in the critically acclaimed film Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) as "The Mechanic". The film is often discussed alongside other anti-Western Existentialist road movies of the era, such as Easy Rider. It depicts "The Driver" (Taylor) and "The Mechanic" driving aimlessly across the United States in their '55 Chevy surviving through money made street drag racing.

Solo Career

Pacific Ocean Blue

Working with a few trusted collaborators including Daryl Dragon (the 'Captain' of The Captain & Tennille) and Manson Era confederate Gregg Jakobson, Dennis managed to pull together a critically acclaimed solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue which was released in 1977. The album matched the contemporaneous Beach Boys band album Love You in sales. A planned 1977 Dennis Wilson solo tour was scuttled, possibly by Beach Boys internal politics.

Bamboo

The first solo album's follow-up, Bamboo, was scuttled by lack of finance and the distractions of simultaneous Beach Boys projects and remains officially unreleased, though often bootlegged. Two songs from Bamboo were lifted for the Beach Boys 1979 L.A. (Light Album) and represent Dennis Wilson's final officially released artistic statements, although he and brother Brian recorded together apart from the Beach Boys in 1980 and 1981. These sessions remain unreleased although one song, "Stevie," has been widely bootlegged.

Dennis claimed in a September 1977 interview that his second solo album was much better than his first album. He was quoted as saying: "The next album is a hundred times what Pacific Ocean Blue is. It kicks. It's different in a way. I think I have more confidence now that I've completed one project, and I'm moving on to another"

Death

Succeeding years saw an alcohol abuse problem worsen. On Superbowl Sunday 1981 cousin Stan Love and Brian's ex employee, Rocky Pamplin decided to beat Dennis up for sharing drugs with his brothers. The beating led to further vocal damage. Trying to remedy the situation, Steven Gaines' book, 'Heroes and Villains' revealed that two operations to remove polyps from Dennis' vocal cords were unsuccessful. Possibly disillusioned by others' neglect of his talent (though he had always shown a blatant disregard for his own physical safety), he continued to record solo intermittently, but never released any more material. Thus, the "other" Beach Boy who has been called genius by some was unfulfilled creatively at the time of his death by alcohol-related drowning at Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles, in late December 1983, just after his 39th birthday. On the day of his death in 1983, Wilson was quoted as saying "I'm lonesome. I'm lonesome all the time."

Fred Vail, a close friend of Dennis, said that his premature death was most likely inevitable: "I knew that Denny wasn't the type of guy who would live to be an old man. It just wasn't in the general scheme of things. He was just constantly challenging the boundaries."

He left behind a young wife, Shawn Love, the alleged illegitimate daughter of his cousin Mike Love, and their young son, Gage Dennis Wilson (born 1982). He had been previously married three times, to Carole Freedman (with whom he had a daughter, Jennifer and whose son, Scott, he adopted) to Barbara Cherren (with whom he had two sons, Michael and Carl) and (twice) to Karen Lamm, the ex-wife of Robert Lamm. On January 4, 1984 he was given a burial at sea off the California coast.

Dennis Wilson: Encyclopedia BETA

Contents